LAB NOTES

By Compiled by

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS|

Feb 14, 1998 | 12:00 AM

Laughter and the brain Laughter can be electric. Scientists discovered this when they were electrically stimulating a part of the brain of a 16-year-old epileptic, the portion that is normally involved in speech and manual dexterity. This shows that speech and laughter are controlled by the same area of the brain, which probably evolved for such uniquely human characteristics, said Itzhak Fried of UCLA Medical School in a letter to the journal Nature. Making us see stars An exploding star that lighted up the southern sky in 1987 and then dimmed is starting to brighten again as its high-speed blast wave creates a ring of fire. Though not visible from the ground, astronomers said the increasing brightness of the supernova remnant is clearly visible in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. They said light from the ring of fire should intensify over the next 10 years. "This is the first spark of some stellar fireworks that will take place over the next few years," said Robert Kirshner, a Harvard astronomer. Worming into history Scientists have found the deep-sea equivalent of a Scandinavian sauna lover. It's a worm that's just as happy in near-boiling temperatures as it is in water 100 degrees cooler. The worms known as "Alvinella pompejana," or Pompeii worm are about 21/2 inches long and live in tubes alongside hot-water chimneys on the ocean floor. The temperatures ranged from 176 degrees Fahrenheit inside the tubing to 72 degrees at the opening. The worms didn't seem to mind that their tails were hot and their heads chilly, according to the journal Nature. Researchers, including some from Rutgers University, made the observation as they measured the temperature of the tubes off the Costa Rican coast from the safety of the deep-sea submersible vessel Alvin.